Saturday, June 26, 2010

Godless Billboard Vandalized In Charlotte, NC

In what can only be called an act of hatred and cowardice, the "One Nation Indivisible" billboard on Billy Graham Parkway has been vandalized. Who would have guessed that Christians could have enough hatred, or time, in them to do this? I mean, we are talking about the group of people responsible for the Crusades.

I can't wrap my head around this. What is so horrible about the billboard; the unity part or the patriotism part? I suppose that we could expect no less from a group of dullards that need to have the word "god" written on everything they see. I was also surprised to see a lack of creativity. That was the best the vandals could come up with? What a sad state of affairs the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System must be in.

I think that this makes the point of the billboard. Just the very act of letting the public know you exist is enough to draw their scorn and their mentally damaged vandals. The message is needed, so I am going to reiterate it here:

ATHEISTS LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINAWE WILL NOT BE BULLIED

The billboard will be fixed and so will our resolve. We will continue to promote our positive messages that we are one country and you can be good without that figment of the imagination that some call god. I think this really proves our point: obviously Christianity doesn't make you a good person. How many church billboards get defaced in the name of atheism?

This shit happens all of the time. Christians constantly rail against all things immoral, but when someone does something like this, there is a wink and a nod. Obviously we atheists were asking for it, what with wanting to be treated like everyone else. I am so glad that atheists aren't discriminated against, otherwise we would see billboards like this:

When I first heard of this billboard, it struck me as deliberately provocitive. As such, the vandalization was the only logical conclusion.One cannot go around poking people in the chest and then become outraged when someone pokes back.

How is the billboard provocative? That is exactly how the pledge read for many years. The 'under god' part was added later to appease religious zealots. It wasn't always there.

I don't understand the talk of 'poking the chest'. Atheists manage to disagree with Christianity without breaking laws and destroying others' property. You're very quick to glaze over the fact that what was done was quite illegal.

That sort of willingness to abruptly disregard the rule of law and common decency when your religion is involved is part of the reason some of us view religion so negatively.

If you actually stood as an example of a moral figure, people might take your cause more seriously. As it stands now, christianity appears to be little more than a cult which has agreed that they are exempt from their own moral legislation, because "that's how god would have wanted it".

Do you honestly not see an issue with feeling like crimes are allowed as long as your friends are committing them?

It is ONE BILLBOARD. There is ONE SOLITARY atheist billboard in Charlotte and it has been defaced.

There are thousands upon thousands of religious billboards in Charlotte.

ONE ATHEIST billboard and it gets tagged *by someone who's clearly religious (and who SHOULD be definition have known better)* within days of going up.

Writing about it, and being rightly irritated, is not being "victimized", it's calling attention to the hypocrisy and ridiculousness of the situation. It's a goddamn billboard! You don't even have to look at it for more than a second! AND YET IT CAN'T BE LEFT ALONE.

THAT is the problem. No, no one died. No, it's not as important as some other issues. No one is crying about it, and no one wants to retaliate in kind. It is highly irritating that not only can we not have ONE billboard in this city, but then when it gets vandalized a bunch of half-brained morons try to rationalize it. Way to go, dipshits.

"Uuuhhh, eerrr, I think this billboard is CONTROVERSIAL and I don't like that it makes my one brain cell hurt, so I think it's ok to destroy it!"

Oh, and of COURSE Christians are above the law----vandalism is nothing, actually, compared to murdering doctors in their churches. I know plenty of Christians who think Scott Roeder was perfectly in the right for shooting Dr. Tiller in the head in front of his friends and family. Why would destroying a mere sign be any problem?

Anonymous said:"When I first heard of this billboard, it struck me as deliberately provocitive. As such, the vandalization was the only logical conclusion.One cannot go around poking people in the chest and then become outraged when someone pokes back."

So, under your set of beliefs, anytime someone says something someone doesn't like, they are allowed to inhibit the other persons first amendment rights?

The billboard calling atheists "anti-American" could have been set on fire, spray painted, or torn down, but it wasn't.

I would hate to live in your world, where the rights that are granted by the Constitution are overridden by a group of slack-jawed hillbilly Christians who have pulled themselves away from their rent boys long enough to impose their own version of Sharia Law.

Our indignation is justified. If an atheist were to deface any church property, the outcry would be tremendous. But we're supposed to sit quietly and complacently as something we paid for is vandalized.

It seems to me that perhaps we left off the most important words from the pledge: with liberty and justice FOR ALL.

Wow, utterly outrageous. Sometimes I'm amazed by the immaturity of christians...then I realize that they believe in a work of fiction & things make a bit more sense. Still, c'mon...this just makes all of you look ridiculous.

"some random Christian", "deliberately provocative"...and with these profound words of wisdom Christianities finest cut right to the heart of the matter. There is but a fine line, if any line at all, between Christianity and Islam. Piss either one off and you will be retaliated against, laws and rules be damned!

With one mentally and grammatically challenged stroke of the pen they are willing to discard all notions of rule by law and equality of all citizens and ideas in defense of their almighty, omniscient creator.

One word, one thought in defense of this type of behavior instantly exposes the deceit and idiocy at the heart of their theology. God is the source of morality but we will abandon morality in defense of god...huh?!?

I have to say to Mr Anonymous. Do you know how much fucking money that cost?! Do you know how much hard work went into that? We aren't like religious people where we can pass around a collection plate every sunday and use it to buy nice houses, cars, and dozens of billboards. Many of the groups who participated in this campaign are *still* trying to get money together to pay back the NC Secular Association- the message isn't provocative.. there is no poking.. it's a message of equality and American principles of freedom from dogmatic oppression. All we're wanting is equality and you're saying discrimination is justified because we asked for it? Adding religious phrasing to government symbols was the "poke in the chest" and yet, because you're the ones doing the poking, we're supposed to just sit there and take it. Double standard much?

This is one reason I'm hesitant to move down to North Carolina, even the Raleigh area coming from NY. I'm worried the church worship and prejudice against an atheist will be insurmountable, and leave me uncomfortable all the time. It's a shame religious zealots can't keep it to themselves, but then again I'm not really surprised.

According to the NCSA's website, "This ad campaign is intended as a consciousness-raising effort to point out how every U.S. citizen who doesn’t believe in a monotheistic god is being "officially" marginalized, disrespected, and discriminated against..." It is simply NOT possible to raise consciousness without being provocative.

The indignation in this post regarding what was the almost certain, predictable outcome of this matter is indicative of a naivety that I would not expect from people that describe themselves as rational. Many Christians are arrogant and hypocritical, and consider themselves above "Man's Law." What reaction did you expect - a pray meeting?

As atheists, we have a long struggle ahead of us before we are freely granted the equality that is our right in this country. Safe the indignation for when homes and business are burnt to the ground and people are killed in defense of their Constitutional freedoms.

Put me down in the column of folks who are proud the billboard went up and irritated, but not surprised, it was defaced. Heather, and others above, have summed up my reaction to the story and to the few spiteful comments quite nicely.

The billboard was put up as a positive message to speak out for the non-thesists in our area however it seems that some people of faith in the area have an issue with that. What if a billboard would be put up by an African American group around Christmas to promote Kwanzaa as an alternate holiday to celebrate? Would it be acceptable to vandalize that kind of billboard as well because Kwanzaa is not a celebration of the birth of Jesus but rather it was established as a means to help African Americans reconnect with their African cultural and historical heritage? I would say it just as much of a hate crime to vandalize that type of sign as it was to vandalize a sign attemping to broadcast a positive message in the hopes that some christians would begin open up their minds and learn to have more acceptance of others. Many christians truly can be bigots when dealing with non-theists due to being taught over the course of thier life that one must believe in the teachings of the bible to be a good person. Within our society, we as a whole are taught, not saying that everyone learns these lessons, to be accepting of others regardless of their race, culture, gender and religion. However, some christians feel that it is acceptable to dicriminate against a group of people that are just trying to find their voice simply due to the fact that we have a different point of view.

What did Jesus say to do when someone slaps you? Turn the other cheek. If you don't get that, then I wonder how much of the bible you really get. One of the core foundations of the new testament is to treat others the way you want to be treated. I hate religious billboards but I don't go out and deface them to say what I think. Seems like the Atheists are more moral than the person who defaced this billboard.

The phrase was finished before it was "revised" in the 50s due to wanting to distinguish ourselves from those "damn atheist commies." I prefer my government not to recognize any religion, like the First Amendment clearly states. It shouldn't have any comment on the existence of gods or the lack of existence of gods. If you don't like it, too bad. I prefer my government following the Constitution rather than texts written by people thousands of years ago who had a rather primitive view of how the universe itself functions and how to create societies that are embracive and open to all individuals and beliefs. There's nothing "Christian" about our Constitution, and in fact, it offends me that a religion that promotes personal suffering and societal division (Luke 12:51-53), two of many damaging examples, would take credit in a Constitution that's an obvious reaction to theocracies and governments that limit human rights (yes, I'm aware of the hypocrisy of these "rights" being limited to white males at the time). But American Christians need to wake up and realize their government wasn't designed to ever cater their religious doctrine, but only to protect every individuals' right to follow or not follow any religious doctrine.

Well, of course when you post a message that the Christian reich doesn't like, you have to be censored. What do you think this is, a country where freedom of (and implicitly, from) religion and freedom of speech is allowed?

Oh wait. I'm very thankful that I don't live in the Bible Belt anymore.

"The problem is relativistic morality like that is NOT a Christian virtue, but the very kind of thinking that infects Liberals and Atheists."

First, I "appreciate" the straw-man. I myself (an atheist and liberal) do not believe in "relativistic morality" as you describe. You give Polanski as an example. I may be one who likes his directorial style, but that by no means causes me to think that he shouldn't go to jail. He certainly committed a crime and needs to be punished accordingly. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church is being awfully stubborn about giving up their pedophile priests to government authorities...

There are beneficial actions and there are non-beneficial actions and society judges accordingly. Humans have created and interpreted morals differently for thousands and thousands of years.

Second, thank goodness our morals are not static but always evolving. I hope you're not the type of Christian Conservative who is cool with people owning slaves, women being submissive to men, and the right to kill non-believers? The Bible certainly does. What would this say if you don't believe in the above? You have better morals than your Bible.

shouldnt you athiests be sucking the blood of the living instead of commenting on this post? you think that it so horrible that your poor little sign was defaced. am i saying that the person who did it was right? no. but belivers of the christian faith get ridiculed constantly by you a$$ holes and now you want to complain over one sign? oh come on, you stupid f*ckers want to keep religion out of government, this great nations government was founded on christianity. hence "one nation under god" in the pledge of allegiance. you dont have and issue with the term "under god" you have an issue with the whole entire national government. we were not the ones to sign the bill including "under god" President of the UNITED STATES (as in he's top dog and had the incentive to do something with his life unlike you lazy bastard$ and therefore he gets to make desisions) Harry Truman signed the bill. you athiests all over the country are barking up th e wrong tree. christains are not an angry people but we WILL NOT sit by and be poked in the chest without poking back.

in the name of all that is righteous and just, may the lord have mercy on your soul

Mr B., Please learn how to read. Many posts have already answered the latter part of your paragraph referring to the government. Or are you one of those people who likes to stick their fingers in their ears and scream "I'm not listening unless it supports my beliefs!"?

I have yet to read about or meet any atheist who threatened others with violence and/or death or the silly concept of an eternal hell unless they disbelieved in the existence of gods; however, in many religions it's quite easy to find many "a$$ holes" preaching about how awful and evil non-believers are. Yes, Christians can be angry people. Read some history.

The message that humans aren't "good enough" and therefore must be "saved" by a god is ridiculing to humanity in the first place. Please do not be a hypocrite Mr. B.

I am proud of the person that added the UNDER GOD. And yes athiest tag, rob and burn churches all of the time. If you northern folks don't like it the way we do it in NC then please feel free to stay where you have already made it unbearable to live. Why else would you be flocking south???????????